Research Articles

Thursday 13 March 2025 - Why Photonic Integrated Circuits are at the Heart of the AI Revolution; What is a PIC?; The role of PICs, including silicon photonics, in data center transceivers; How the growth in AI accelerator demand is shaping the PIC transceiver market; A roadmap for the future of datacom transceivers; An insight into IDTechEx's ten-year forecasts for the PIC market

The solid-state battery (SSB) industry is transforming and is driven by advanced technologies and rising application demand. Offering breakthroughs in safety and energy density, SSBs could reach a US$9 billion market by 2035.

The rise of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) has reshaped the diabetes management technology market. With the market projected to reach US$44 billion by 2035, CGM technology is transforming diabetes care by replacing painful fingerstick tests and providing real-time glucose insights.

Thursday 20 March 2025 - PFAS: Changing Regulations and Increasing Scrutiny for Forever Chemicals; PFAS definitions and concerns about PFAS exposure; Regulatory updates impacting PFAS; Impact of regulations on PFAS in sustainable food packaging

The advancement of fuel cell technologies, combined with the global commitment to sustainable aviation, creates a significant opportunity for hydrogen-fuelled planes to enhance the sustainability of air travel.

The EV revolution is driving demand for a huge variety of materials used in battery cells and packs. With new chemistries emerging to bridge cost and energy density gaps, the landscape is evolving rapidly. However, battery pack designers face complex challenges.

Emerging image sensors are being developed with capabilities beyond well-established CMOS detectors, with the possibility of detecting broader parts of the light spectrum that are beyond human vision. IDTechEx's report, "Emerging Image Sensor Technologies 2024-2034: Applications and Markets", covers new technologies including hyperspectral imaging and event-based vision.

Numerous barriers and challenges have made trucks (both medium and heavy-duty) more difficult to electrify than lighter vehicle segments. However, within these categories, some considerations make certain applications more easily electrifiable with current technologies, while other applications will require further improvements to electric vehicle (EV) technologies to become viable.

Sourcing the most effective means of keeping vehicle batteries cool is a task explored extensively in IDTechEx's latest report, "Thermal Management for Electric Vehicles 2025-2035: Materials, Markets, and Technologies". The report covers many thermal management approaches for electric vehicles, including immersion cooling, and the respective players aiming to make their uptake more widespread.

Silicon-based solar technologies continue to dominate the market; however, there is rising interest in an emerging technology known as perovskite. Perovskites have the potential to enhance existing silicon solar supplies, but which applications can perovskite solar be used for, and how will it compete in a market dominated by an already well-established technology?

Radars have had a place within the automotive sector for over two decades, beginning with the first use for adaptive cruise control and many other developments taking place since. With radar technology becoming cheaper and, therefore, more widely available, ADAS system features are offered by many vehicle manufacturers. IDTechEx predicts that the automotive radar market will grow with a CAGR of 4.8% between 2024 and 2034.

Thursday 6 Match 2025 - Driving Sustainability: Can Automotive Companies Deliver on Sustainable Plastics?; An overview of sustainable automotive plastics; The circular economy for automotive plastics; A summary of other sustainable materials covered in the report including sustainable upholstery, composites, and tire materials; Coverage of the key drivers pushing for sustainable automotive plastics; The key challenges for players in the automotive supply chain; Industry targets for sustainable plastics adoption; Discussion on the progress of adopting sustainable plastics and other polymers into passenger vehicles; IDTechEx's outlook and conclusions

IDTechEx forecasts that by 2035, the global data center sector will have saved US$150 billion by using low-carbon energy sources compared to a fossil fuel scenario (taking 2024 as the baseline). Some emerging energy technologies expected to play an increasingly important role are explored in this article.

Lithium metal batteries are well placed to see significant adoption in the next ten years. IDTechEx anticipates mass production of solid-state lithium metal in 2027/2028; of liquid electrolyte lithium metal in 2029/2030,6 and of lithium-sulfur in 2031/2032.

The wearable sensors market encompasses an array of exciting technologies with the potential to unlock a host of applications in healthcare, extended reality, industrial IoT, and more. Yet as the wearable sensors market matures, there will be some roadblocks for growth ahead. In this article, IDTechEx outlines three challenges facing the wearable sensors market and some potential solutions which will see the market size grow to US$7.2 billion with a CAGR of 5% by 2035.

The battery remains one of the key components of an EV, and vastly different performance, economic, and operational requirements necessitate a wide range of other batteries likely to be required for each sector. IDTechEx's report "Electric Vehicles across Land, Sea, and Air" covers 11 diverse vehicle categories. What types of batteries will be needed to meet the unique requirements of each of these sectors?

High-perfornance computing (HPC) hardware powers the most advanced computer systems in the world, used for complex simulations, training AI, and more. Explore the driving forces behind the growing demand for HPC, along with the key trends shaping its future.

This article provides an introduction into the key silicon anode materials being developed for Li-ion battery anodes, including silicon oxides, silicon-carbon composites, and 100% silicon anodes. These silicon anode technologies aim to improve battery performance whilst overcoming the poor cycle life historically typical for silicon anode materials.

Thursday 27 February - The issues with conventional semiconductor manufacturing and circuit patterning; Barriers and opportunities for sustainable manufacturing processes; The search for green chemicals and PFAS alternatives for semiconductor circuit patterning; The impact of EUV lithography on sustainability; Research focuses and advancements in dry etching

Repurposing EV batteries extends their lifespan, maximizes value, and delays recycling. In this short overview, IDTechEx explores the growing second-life battery market, key opportunities, and industry trends.

As growing numbers of countries identify critical materials within their economies, the ability to recycle them is becoming increasingly important, especially considering both their economic importance and ongoing supply risks. Sustainability goals rely on growing technology sectors like electric vehicles, which rely on magnets to be manufactured, ultimately meaning sourcing and recycling critical materials is an economic necessity to keep supply chains running.

In this article, IDTechEx explores two different quantum sensing approaches: semiconductor-based and superconducting single-photon detectors, and the competition between them in enabling the photonic quantum computing and quantum communications industries.

Global sales for electric cars will reach 69 million by 2045 - IDTechEx offers expert-led insights on this evolving market based on unique information from industry leaders.

When the Society of Automotive Engineers released their definitions of varying levels of automation from level 0 to level 5, it became easier to define and distinguish between the many capabilities and advancements of autonomous vehicles. Supervision and functionality remain in the balance as values to prioritize for OEMs choosing to employ higher levels of automation.

With global cargo and e-commerce demand set to skyrocket over the next 20 years, electric light commercial vehicles (eLCVs) will play a crucial role in the decarbonization of transport. eLCVs are now technologically mature enough to compete with current combustion vehicles on virtually all performance metrics. However, before they can be adopted en-masse into commercial fleets, they must first demonstrate that they can be financially competitive too.

AI is placed to reshape the battery supply chain over the next few years, with machine learning providing powerful tools for cell developers, materials suppliers, battery users, and even recyclers. IDTechEx Technology Analyst shares more on how valuable data can finally be used to its full effect.

Thursday 20 February 2025 - Data Center Energy Use Exceeds Sweden's Annual Consumption, Driving Demand for Sustainable Technologies; Energy consumption overview; Regional regulations and hyperscalers' actions and targets; Scope 2: Power generation technology benchmarking and cost analysis; Scope 2: Energy efficiency trend of data center IT, thermal and electrical components; Scope 3 decarbonization technologies; Market size forecast of carbon-free energy for data center and future opportunities

Biofuels and e-fuels have been on the rise as many sectors worldwide aim to increase sustainability, with traditional aviation using fossil-based jet fuel contributing around 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions. Conventional aviation fuel (Jet A-1) can now be blended with or replaced by new sustainable fuel derived from biomass or electricity. The main advantage of these replacement fuels is repurposing waste products from other industries into useful products, with SAF reducing flight emissions from its production to end use, anywhere from 30% to 90% in best-case scenarios.

Quantum computing is growing closer to realizing its full potential, pipe dreams have become tangible five-year plans, and more and more players are earning their own money for the first time. Finally, time will pass quicker than many appreciate in the years ahead - don't blink and miss the quantum computing market grow up, and the chance to leverage its disruptive potential at maturity.

"Forever chemicals", the colloquial term for the family of chemicals known as PFAS, is coming under increasing regulatory pressure globally as concerns over the negative effects of PFAS on human health and the environment are mounting. In this short video, IDTechEx Principal Technology Analyst Sona Dadhania talks through what "forever chemicals" are and why they are having such a global impact.

Electric vehicle (EV) sales continued to increase in 2024, admittedly with some significant regional disparity, but IDTechEx found that globally, EV sales increased 24% in 2024 over 2023. Despite the fact that most data shows EV fires are less common than combustion engine vehicles, safety cannot be overlooked in any rate of occurrence. This article aims to discuss some of the key factors and some of the potential materials that EV battery designers may consider.

Sales of electric light commercial vehicles (eLCVs) are expected to surge from just under 500,000 in 2024 to over 11 million by 2045. In this short video, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Pranav Jaswani provides key insights into this rapidly expanding industry on the brink of widespread adoption.

The market for Silicon Photonics and PICs is experiencing robust growth, driven by the surge in AI and datacom transceiver demand. IDTechEx forecasts that PIC technology will continue to dominate the high-performance transceiver market, further solidifying its position as a critical component in the modern technological landscape.

In 2024, the 3D printing space saw challenges and slower growth, with several prominent materials players exiting the industry. In the long-term, there are still key trends within the additive manufacturing industry that will drive the uptake of this technology, covered extensively by IDTechEx in their latest report, "3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing 2024-2034: Technology and Market Outlook", exploring key players and predictions over the next decade.

The automotive industry is under increasing scrutiny to improve sustainability, and one of the key approaches to addressing this is sustainable material choice. The automotive sector uses over 14 million tonnes of plastics in passenger automotive vehicles each year.

Despite the large increase in EV adoption, EV battery designers still face a great deal of challenges. For material players within the EV supply chain, there are several routes to supporting EV battery designers with these challenges and differentiating their offerings. This article covers the primary and secondary targets for EV battery designers and some of the ways that materials suppliers can support them.